FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

Friday, December 19, 2008

25 Days of CHRISTmas - December 19, 2008

"On the nineteenth day of CHRISTmas my true Love gave to me... "

Well, I hit a lull today. I'm not sure what to say here. It was a strange day. The little kids had pajama day and it was only a half day at school. That meant this morning I didn't have to get them dressed or make them a lunch. You would think that meant I would have a light and easy morning, but instead it meant I got caught up in too many non-essential things and got myself behind.

I went to work for a brief time and got very little done other than wrapping the gifts for my nieces and nephew in Virginia. They've been at the office for a couple weeks and I waited till today to package them to ship. Nothing like higher shipping charges. But they're worth it.

I went to the little kids' school and horned in on the last few minutes of Ethan's class party... it was TOTAL chaos, but they were having fun. Ethan's teacher even seemed more relaxed than she did even at the Thanksgiving event, I think she's finding her groove. I took the kids home and we rested for a little while. And then we picked up the very messy house because the repairman was coming over.

Jake got home, I took a phone call from the hospital about Neal's surgery on Monday. They have arbitrarily moved it back to another hour later but still want us there at the same time. We talked through my annoyance on that one. (Translation, I told her I didn't like it, she told me it didn't matter.)

The repairman came, and Tuesday I get to spend about $600 to get some heating pipes replaced because the vent at the roof is cracking and when it rains, it comes inside my house where it doesn't belong. Then I got to tell Neal how much money we're spending on something neither of us will get great pleasure out of using, but neither of us can afford to do without. I also had to remind him that we deal with one of the few honest heating and air companies in the OC and if he says $600, it's undoubtedly a fair price.

Neal still gets riled about these things a little, I have come to the conclusion we will always be in debt. (Remember we are still paying for his summer hospital stay and now get to add Monday's surgery to the mix.) Debt is apparently our lot in life, and yes, we tithe.

Today is my mom's birthday and because I was stranded at home dealing with household issues, she had to come here to get her gift. That was much appreciated. The kids and I bought her a CHRISTmas cookie jar, it looks like a gingerbread house. This is one of those gifts you buy for the people who have everything.

Neal went out and picked up barbecue for dinner because the 4 leftover ribs my dad gave him yesterday weren't enough to satisfy Neal, Victoria and me. (YES, it's me and not I, take out the other names and it confirms the grammar.)

Aha... I got it...

"On the nineteenth day of CHRISTmas my true Love gave to me... the ability to go with the flow."

It's a rare and exceptional gift for a recovering control freak like myself, so I will appreciate that I am not freaking out about the $600 bill, or the surgery on Monday, or the bill that will flow that, or the $3500 bill from summer that is now still $3450 after all my payments... Deep breath, I think I'll stop there before I lose my flow.